Peter Vardy - The Puzzle of the Gospels

THE PUZZLE OF ETHICS
(with Paul Grosch)

THE PUZZLE OF EVIL

THE PUZZLE OF GOD

PETER VARDY AND MARY MILLS

First published 1995 by M.E. Sharpe

Published 2015 by Routledge
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Copyright 1995 by Peter Vardy and Mary Mills
All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notices
No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use of operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Vardy, Peter.

The puzzle of the Gospels/Peter Vardy, Mary Mills.

p. cm.

Originally published: London : Fount, 1995.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7656-0165-6 (hardcover : alk. paper).
ISBN 0-7656-0166-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Bible. N.T. GospelsCriticism, interpretation, etc.
2. Jesus ChristHistoricity. I. Mills, Mary E. II. Title.
BS2555.2.V29 1997
226.06dc21 97-2911

CIP

ISBN 13: 9780765601667 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 9780765601650 (hbk)

Responsibility for all errors lies entirely with the authors but there would have been more of them were it not for the proof-reading efforts and advice of the following to whom the authors are very grateful: Fr Robert Murray SJ; Martin Poulson SDB; Paul OReilly SJ, Peggy Moore, Anne and Catherine Vardy and Anne Laing-Brooks. Biblical quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version except where indicated otherwise.

MARY MILLS SHCJ

PETER VARDY

Easter 1994 to Epiphany 1995

The gospels tell a story. There are many types of story ranging from fiction through biographies to attempts at historical accounts. Even so-called true stories will be affected by the perception of the writer.

In the 1980s, a man advertised for a woman to spend a year with him on a desert island. Their year together resulted in two books one written by the man and one by the woman. Although both said that they were giving an account of what happened in the year, the pictures that emerged were radically different because in the two cases the stories were being presented from a particular viewpoint. It is impossible to present any book without taking the viewpoint of the author into account which is one reason why this book will be devoting considerable time to understanding the purpose and intention of the individual gospel writers. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John present different accounts of the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth, as one might expect from four people who, although they use some common material, nevertheless present this material in distinctive ways.

Some may reject this kind of careful examination of the gospels saying that there is no puzzle they are the word of God. However it is not as simple as that. The gospels were written by human beings. There is no suggestion in Christianity, as there is in Islam, that the gospels were divinely dictated. Jesus friends and the followers of his friends wrote down accounts of his life and these accounts differ. The gospels present a particular problem for twentieth-century readers as there are no similar texts in ancient literature they are not straightforward biographies.

This book will be concerned with helping you, the reader, to understand the gospel stories and how they came to be written; to bring to light the implicit references that were being made of which modern readers may be unaware; and also to consider the issue of the truth of the stories. Truth can sometimes be regarded as a dirty word by some biblical scholars who see themselves primarily as experts on the literary documents with which they are dealing. However this is to ignore the basic questions about the sort of story the gospels are meant to represent. One cannot ignore the issue of whether the gospel writers were intending to make claims to truth and, if so, what sort of claims these were. Part of the puzzle of the gospels is to work out what story is being presented to the reader, but there is then an equally important question: to what extent and in what way should the stories be regarded as true rather than fictional accounts?